Democrats are waging an “offensive” campaign against former President Donald Trump with the set-up of the impeachment trial, according to a member of Trump’s defense team.
David Schoen, one of the 45th president’s lawyers, said on Thursday there is a lack of due process in the proceedings as House impeachment managers make their case that Trump incited an insurrection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The impeachment case being made by House Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, is wrapping up its final day of presentations on Thursday, after which Trump’s team will respond starting Friday. The trial began on Tuesday.
Recommended Stories
During a Fox News interview, Schoen was asked to comment on reporting and speculation that GOP senators are moved by what the impeachment managers have presented, which included never-before-seen footage of the riot. Schoen said that’s valuable information to have, before attacking what he described was an unfair process, made possible by the Democratic-controlled Senate, that has allowed Hollywood-caliber presentations to sway hearts and minds while a serious fact-finding mission has been cast aside.
“This is what you get when you bring in a movie company and hire a large law firm to make a professional product that takes things out of context and presents it as an entertainment package,” Schoen said, adding that Trump doesn’t “want to be associated” with the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol that took place as Congress sought to affirm President Biden’s electoral victory.
“If you look at their sources for the information they would suggest is compelling, they have such sources as ‘reportedly,’ or ‘sources.’ That is part of the problem with the complete lack of due process. No investigation in this case, and no opportunity to test the evidence in this case,” he said, referring to the House impeachment managers’ use of media reporting to build their case, which in some cases relied on anonymous sources.
“In no setting in this country, where someone’s guilt or innocence is being adjudicated, would this kind of approach be permitted. That’s why we have rules against things like hearsay and require other credibility and reliability. But here, for an impeachment process, it’s offensive,” he added.
Asked to share an update on the former president, Schoen said Trump “is very upbeat,” and has “condemned the violence, and he doesn’t in any way want to be associated with what happened,” adding the former president is “quite offended at trying to be tied into it.”
A two-thirds vote in the Senate is needed to convict in Trump’s historic second impeachment trial. He was first impeached in late 2019 on two Ukraine-related charges but was acquitted by the then-GOP-led Senate in 2020. Trump was impeached again last month, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats.
